Seomun Market is the largest traditional street market in Daegu. You can find Korean street food, household items, bedding, dried seafood... literally anything.

Since the market is much larger compared to traditional markets that are located in Seoul, you might be able to get lost, and don't know what type of food to try out. 

This blog will tell you about my visit to the Seomun Market, food that my friend and I have tried, as well as night market food suggestions!

Review

Once you arrive near the market, you will be able to see the huge signs of 'Seomun Market'. 

I got myself a guide map to help to navigate the market. If you are not good with directions, I highly suggest getting one to help yourself guide in the busy traditional market! 

A lot of small outdoor shops were mostly selling groceries, dried seafood and household items.

Whenever I am travelling, it is easy to skip getting natural Vitamin C from fruits due to the busy travelling schedule. Why don't you buy a basket of clementine or grapes to bring back to your accommodation and help yourself with fresh local fruits? 

There was a lot of dried seafood too!

As I entered the street food alley, I picked three different food with my friend. 

First of all, the flat mandu and tteokbokki was my choice. Flat mandu is Daegu's signature style of dumpling that features crispy and slight stuffed half-moon with glass noodles and veggies inside. The spicy tteokbokki sauce and crispy mandu went well together! 

As a tteokbokki lover, I really enjoyed the combination of both. I highly recommend trying like the photos below! 

The next food that my friend and I had was the leaf mandu! They cost ￦1,000 per mandu. We got five in total to fill our hungry tummy. 

There are two options of sauce for you to pick from! The one on the left is soy sauce, and the red sauce on the very right is the spicy sauce. I tried a bit of the spicy sauce.. and it was way too hot for me! 

The inside of the mandu is filled with glass noodles and vegetables. Any vegetarian or vegan reading this blog? These can be a great option at a Korean traditional street food market! 

Hotteok can't be missed when you are in Seomun Market. Even though you will have to queue for a bit, the taste of the veggie hotteok was worthy of waiting. 

When I had a first bite of the crispy hotteok, the savoury veggies inside went very well together. 

A veggie hotteok only costs ￦1,000! If you have extra space in your stomach after trying different street food, you must try this out too! 

Eden Gimbap

• Address: 대신동 115-400 서문시장 5지구 3호
• Hours:
  Mon-Sat 05:00-19:00
  Sun Closed

If you prefer having a mean sitting down than standing up, I highly suggest Eden Gimbap! (Even if you enjoy eating street food while you are walking, I still recommend trying here.) 

This is a small restaurant located in Seomu Market, where many local vendors and customers visit to have a meal. Their signature menu is the 'egg gimbap', which is egg dipped gimbap!

There were several beloved Korean streetfood menus including kal-guksu, udon, instant noodle.. and more. 

You can take-out your order or eat inside the restaurant. These ajummas take orders, make your order, and get payments outside of the restaurant. 

Once you arrive, pick your menu, order, pay, and go inside! Easy! 

I have ordered a roll of gimbap and bibim-guksu (spicy cold noodles). 

You can help yourself with water, cutleries, water and homemade kimchi from the buffet inside the restaurant. I have read some good reviews of the combination of kimchi and gimbap... which made me even more excited while I was scooping my kimchi.  

I have waited for 10 minutes... and my order finally appeared! They honestly looked amazing and mouth-watering. 

First, I tried bibim-guksu. The smell of sesame oil and the taste of the spicy sauce with noodles was more than satisfying. Also, the yeolmu kimchi (young summer radish kimchi) and the perilla added texture and flavour to the spiciness. 

I tried the gimbab next. Sadly, I would say the gimbab was mediocre, but the combination with the homemade kimchi from the restaurant was pretty good. 

Menu

Craving local Korean street food? Eden Gimbap will meet your expectation indeed! 

Night Market Review

After visiting the Seomun Market during the daytime, I got curious about how the night market would look like. 

In fact, Seomun Night Market is very popular among both Korean and foreign travellers! Let's take a look at how Seomun Night Market was like. 

When we arrived at the night market around 7:30 PM, there were quite some people already. Some of the popular vendors had a line-up! 

There were several options from lobsters, deep-fried calamari and octopus and more. 

After browsing a bit, we decided on getting a chicken skewer and gimbap. 

The chicken skewer vendor is called 'Mr. Namcheon's Kochi'. The reason why I chose this vendor...was just because some people lining up for this. 

Even though I wasn't too hungry during my visit to the night market, I found the chicken skewer pretty tasty! There are two flavours available including teriyaki and hot sauce. The price of a skewer is ￦3,500 each. 

They grill the chicken skewer right in front of you! This also would have been a great snack while you grab a beer from the market! I could spot many people grabbing a can of beer with this chicken skewer or other street food. 

Also, we got a samgyeopsal gimbap from one of the vendors. We have ordered the single samgyeopsal gimbap, but if you would like a more meaty flavour from the roll, I would suggest getting the double samgyeopsal one. It only costs ￦900 more compared to the single one. 

The price of samgyeopsal gimbap with a single strip of meat costs ￦4,000, and with a double strip costs ￦4,900.

The veggies inside enhanced the flavour of the gimbap and made it more refreshing! I loved how the vendor is generous with vegetables. The taste of gimbap reminded me of eating ssam.

Information

• Address: 대구 중구 큰장로 26길 45 서문시장
• Hours:
  09:00-19:00
  Closed on the first and third Sundays of the month. 
• Transportation:
  Seomun Market Station, Exit 3
  Cheongna Hill Station, Exit 1

Direction

The easiest way to get to the Seomun Market is the subway. When you take line 3 subway in Daegu, you can easily arrive at the Seomun Market Station. 

If your current location isn't close to subway line 3, you can also take line 2 (green) and get off at the Cheongna Hill Station. 

It takes about 9 minutes by walking from the Cheongna Hill Station to the Seomun Market.

Are you excited to visit the most iconic place in Daegu? Seomun Market is the must-visit destination for all travellers. 

I hope you find this blog helpful, and see you next time!